Wednesday, January 11, 2012

6th edition rulebook leak!

Some of the stuff on the list is blowing my mind. They are either listening in on me and my friends conversations or they finally realized what common sense is!

Highlights after the jump!

They posted this list over at frontline gaming, I added a couple of my thoughts behind their breakdown. Check it out!

Wound allocation: Wounds are distributed by armor type, multi-wound models count for as many models as they have remaining wounds. Sarge and his special weapon buddies are last to die.

Running in the movement phase

Instant Death, (This is one of the things I was tossing around with my friends for homebrew rules!) If your toughness is exceeded by 4 points of strength you take 2 wounds. By 5, 3 wounds, etc.

If you double your opponent’s WS, you hit on 2′s in combat! If their WS is double yours, you hit on a 5, triple, you hit on a 6! (This is one of the things I was tossing around with my friends for homebrew rules!) Finally a rule that makes taking high WS models worth it! The double +1 rule to hit on 3's is one of the worst rules ever.

Rigid saves: sounds like FnP, but is ignored by AP 1,2,3 or instant death attacks. FnP is a 4+ rigid save

Removed from play now just means removed as a casualty.

Preferred enemy: Shooting and HtH! But like 4th ed, always hit on a 3+, if normally hitting on a 3+, now hits on a 2+. If you choose to shoot at a unit that you have PE against, but don’t, you lost the rule for the rest of the game! Now Destroyers with preferred enemy: Everything! makes sense!

Tiers of Eternal Warrior, still reading it, but if you have EW 1, you ignore ID 1, etc. level 3 ignores all ID

If a unit can be singled out by an attack (JotWW) it becomes it’s own unit. Shielded (USR) ignores that rule.

Falling back is now your movement + D6″

some units can cause Terror which triggers a morale check

Shaken applies to all units now, like pinning for infantry and shaken as now for vehicles

Broken units automatically fail their morale if they lose a combat.

Tactical Retreat: If a unit falls off the board, they are removed from play but does not count as destroyed. You can choose to leave the game and not give up a KP or VPs. This is kind of lame. Hopefully They changed how some of the missions work.

Tiered fearlessness: can be pinned or shaken. Fearless units are subject to rules but are better against them. Level 3 fearless ignores everything, though. Stubborn the same. Cold Blooded: new rule allows you to choose to pass or fail. ATSKNF largely remains the same.

Critical hits: this is a blanket rule that automatically wounds and ignores all saves but invulnerable, vehicles take a penetrating hit. Triggered by certain attacks and difficult terrain roles, which now are on a 6, not a 1.

new Dense terrain type: can’t see through it at all. If a unit is in it, you ignore this unit for shooting.

Cover saves now 5+ for all but fortified ruins.

Skilled Rider now IGNORES difficult terrain checks.

Airborne rule: units with this rule ignore difficult and dangerous terrain, but still gain a cover save form it.

Move through cover: run/cruise through difficult terrain.

Turn phases: Move, Assault, Shoot, Consolidate. This is pretty huge. It kind of nerfs armies that have troops that excel in more than one area. (Hi GK!)

In order to control a mission objective, you must have it for an ENTIRE turn.

Turns are defined, things that occur "at the beginning of the turn” are clearly defined.

Cruise and Combat speed are for all units now, cruising or running for infantry, is a straight double movement, no more random roll.

You cannot shoot before charging anymore. A Charge is a double move.

Engage action: charge normal movement distance (not double), but can shoot in the following shooting phase

Divide fire: if you have the divide fire rule, you can give up a shot to shoot all remaining weapons at different targets! A vehicle that holds still can do some serious work, but is easier to hit. Applies to Tanks, Battle Suits, jetbikes, walkers and aircraft

Multi-Targeting: if you have this rule, you can double your shots if you hold still!! Wowzers. If you have multi-targeting(3) you can shoot three times. If you hold still, you shoot 6 times!

Night Vision now lets you reroll your check unless their stealth is higher than their Night Vision.

Overwatch! If an enemy unit ends its move within 12″ of a unit with this ability, they can perform a defensive shooting action at them out of sequence

Relentless: can fire as if they held still, rapid fire to 18″ as opposed to 24″

Draw Back rule: performed in the consolidation phase, 2d6″ move after shooting: eldar jetbikes

In the consolidation phase (after shooting) you can join or leave a unit, embark in a vehicle(!), move or regroup.

You can oly regroup if you are not within 12″ of an enemy unit, but if you embark into a vehicle, you automatically regroup.

Defensive fire: you can shoot a unit that comes within 12″ out of sequence with this rule. Shoot units as they assault you.

Charge by Chance: sounds like over-watch but for assault. If a unit appears within 6″ of the unit with this rule, it can assault that unit. Sounds like shooting a transport, blowing up it up, then assaulting the unit inside.

assault weapons count as a secondary close combat weapon in HtH. If true, this is also pretty huge for GK. Everyone in the army gets +1 A!

Ordnance weapons take 2 fire actions to fire, ordnance barrage take 4 fire actions. Not sure what a fire action is yet, but that could be a huge nerf to manticores!

“bomb” type weapons are fired in the movement phase

grenades can be used as weapons against massive type models (MCs!) or vehicles but WS is 1 for the attacking model. So it's pretty much still hits on 6's against most things.

Directed Hits: attacker chooses what models take the wounds. Stopped by shielding units, or the shielded rule.

Grenade launchers halve the WS of the defending unit when attacking them with grenades

ID causes an additional wound even if the str value of the attack isn’t high enough to normally cause ID. Eternal warrior block ID if the tier is higher.

master crafted rerolls a miss, multiple master crafted weapons of the same type in the same unit reroll one miss per model with the rule (speeds things up a lot)

coarse weapon: only another coarse weapon may grant an additional attack and can’t be directed.

Blast weapons. Hit with BS as normal, if you miss, scatter the number x 2 (always scatters). So if you hit on a 4, you can only ever scatter 4″ max!

Template weapons: can shoot out 3″ from the firing model unless otherwise greater, if it hits the firing point of a vehicle or bastion, D3 models inside are hit! Can be fired in the turn you assault, hitting D6 times on the target unit at the weapons str and ap.

blast weapons hit as described above. Any model partially under the template gets hit at full strength (even vehicles). If the blast hits a vehicle, full strength to armor in firer’s facing. If not on vehicle, full strength to armor facing the center of the blast but -3 on the damage table.

Multiple blasts: fire one weapon as “lead.” Resolve where it lands, all secondary shots must touch the preceding template and hit as many enemy models as possible, moving towards the enemy unit if the shot missed. Wow. Faster, and much deadlier.

Rail Weapons: awesome! Target a model within range, even if not in LOS. Roll to hit as with a blast weapon. After final point is determined, draw a line between point and firing unit. All units under the line take as many hits as models under the line. Holy crap, this can rape tanks! A Hammerhead could theoretically hit as many tanks as are in a straight line and in range! Models out of LOS get a 4+. Multiple rail weapons resolve simultaneously, indirect rail weapons only grant a cover save if the unit is in area terrain. I'm not sure how you could have an indirect rail weapon but this definitely makes tau more interesting

Barrage: roll to hit as with blast weapon. If target is out of LOS you hit with BS, roll the scatter, on a “Hit” you hit. On an arrow you scatter double the die roll. On a BS miss, you scatter as normal.

Power weapons now have the parry rule, which grants a 5++ in HtH! Awesome! A reason to take them. This is awesome for all those Marine sergeants with PWs out there! As well as all the units that come with power weapons standard. Banhsees, incubi(maybe), honor guard, etc.

Monstrous creatures now hit with a weapon that is 2xS, ap 2 Interesting, so they are tryign to apply the AP rules to hth instead of just saying they ignore armour. Makes armies with crappy armour saves even worse!

All CCWs are ap6, which means Orks and Gaunts and such get no save from most HtH attacks.

witchblades are str7, and can be “chanelled” activated with a ld test, to allow the wielder to reroll any failed invul saves. Booooooo

Melta bombs finally have the melta rule and ap!

Psychic Hood: roll a D6 if within 24″, add mastery level, blocker needs to beat defender to stop power. Can’t be used inside a transport. This seems like an improvement overall. See below for the mastery levels.

Any psyker can attempt to stop a power, works on a 5+ so long as the defender is not in a vehicle and within 24″ If you can attempt this multiple times, then that's silly. It should use the psykers power for that turn to try and stop a power.

Vehicles

No vehicles can go up levels in a building anymore, even walkers. Sad face for my window hugging dreadnoughts

Terrain checks for every piece of terrain moved through.

Hitting a Vehicle in HtH is different. If vehicle moves, they are WS10, if they hold still, WS0.

“Tank” type vehicles get -1 to the damage table. Leman Russ, hoooo!

Super heavies: -3 on the damage table.

weapon destroyed is -1 to multi-targeting. Reduced to 0 can only fire one weapon. reuced to -1, can’t shoot.

Immobilized 2 times = dead.

Explodes is now d6″ radius. All units in range, or that were embarked roll a d6 for as many models as were hit. On a 6, the unit takes a critical hit. Exploded vehicles leave no debris behind.

wrecks are a 5+, difficult, dangerous

hull breach: for every additional stunned or immobilized result in the same phase, the damage is 1 higher. Ouch.

skimmers that are immobilized hit the ground off their base, and models underneath move out of the way.

Squadrons: any stunned, shaken, immobilized result ignored on a 5+ with +1 for each vehicle in the squadron. If test is failed, each vehicle in the squadron suffers the result.

repair rules got WAY better: on a 5+, repairing model removes a shaken, stunned, immobile or weapon destroyed result. Or, can boost the vehicle with the same role to add a level of multi-targeting! Techmairnes and Techpriests just got waaaaay cooler. For squadrons, only works if he passes the roll for every vehicle in the squadron.

Super Heavy and Titan rules in the book.

Tanks are not what they were. Lots of old tank vehicles are no longer tanks. Tanks are -1 to evade, but -1 on the damage table, too. AV14 tanks get multi-targeting(3)

units in a transport are now relentless!

buuuuut, may only target units within 18″

If an enemy unit is within 2″ or an exit point, the unit inside the transport can not get out.

disembarking is the same as now.

Embarking is huge now. If the squad leader is within 3″ of an entry point of a transport, the entire unit can embark. This occurs in the consolidation phase and nullifies any other conditions. Such as being broken. It also means the unit can avoid being wiped out if broken.

Emergency disembarkation means the unit is stunned after the vehicle is destroyed.

If all exits are blocked, the blocking units can perform a defensive fire or charge by chance move. Ouch.

Transports that enter play via deep strike, can only have embarked units make a combat move after

Flyers can no longer be assaulted! Only by jump or aerial units.

Supersonic allows them to fly across the table like Apoc flier rules. Minimum 12″ movement.

always hit on a 6

Lots of rules for fighters, rapid insertion, gunship which modify their shooting characteristics.

Fortifications

Rules for buildings, basically immobile vehicles with av12-14 and some crazy rules.

comm station: can shoot beyond 18″ for embarked units

segmented: dangerous terrain to models that deepstrike or supersonic within 24″

Missions

3 basic missions.

6 turns, no more random game length

First turn is determined by a cool system. You secretly bid stratagem points. If you bet higher, you go first unless the other guy outbids you. You keep bidding until one of you gives up. The winner goes first, the lower gets the extra stratagem points. If the loser rolls a 6, he gets 25% of the points he bet (rounding up). That is what seizing the initiative now is. You can’t take the first turn unexpectedly.

All missions use “victory points” although this is different than it was.

Annihilation is in most missions: Kill Points for how many points a unit costs: roll a D6 before the game starts 1-2 every 40pts is 1 VP. 3-4 every 50pts a unit is worth is 1 VP. 5-6 every 70pts a unit is worth gives a VP. Randomly screws MSU or KP denial. Nice.

For multi-player, the player that destroyed the last model of the unit gets the points.

Objectives are placed like Seize Ground now, 3 for a 1K game, 5 for a 1-2K game, 7 for a 2K-3K game.

To hold an objective, you must be within 3″ of it, outside of a transport, at the beginning of the turn, before reserve rolls, starting turn 2.

A unit can only hold one objective at a time. Vehicles can’t hold objectives. Scoring units get 3 VPs per turn, and 6 at game’s end!

Reserves

Wow, this is awesome! For every unit held in reserve, you get a “pool” of dice. You can take up to 3 and use it to roll for any unit or strikeforce in reserve. You can choose not to roll for any units.

If you roll the right number (same as now) they come one. A strikeforce can be any combination of units, but get a -1 to reserves. Units come in automatically turn 4.

This is way better than what we have now. So much more tactical.

Units that come in from reserve appear within 6″ of your board edge and may act normally, meaning they can shoot if they held still. Nice!

Deep Strike

If deepstriking out of 18″ of enemy models and not in impassible terrain or a transport, no scatter is made and the unit can only shoot.

If within 18″, the unit scatters as normal and if it lands on impassible terrain or other units, it reduces the scatter by as many inches as it needs to miss the object and becomes stunned. If the first model lands OK, but the rest can’t be placed, they are lost.

If you land within 12″ of enemy units, they may perform a defensive fire action.

units in a transport can remain embarked after deep striking!

If you have a beacon, icon or similar, units coming in within 6″ of it never scatter and don’t count as being in critical range.

You choose what short table edge you appear on, and within 6″ of it. Nice! Reserve rolls for outflankers are made at -1.

Scouts

12″ consolidation move after deployment for ALL units. No more turbo boosting scout moves. Allows Outflank

Missions

The main mission is Dawn of War, but different meaning. It is Seize ground and annihilation rules as described above. Reminds me of the Bay Area Open mission!

Meant for 2 players, 1K to 3K points.

Eye of the storm is the second mission: 3-5 players, same mission, alternate turn activation, alternate deployment. 1k to 1.5K per player

random game length

Massive attack

3K points or more

2 players

alternate turn structure with players activating portions of their army in turn. So, you use a part of your army, your opponent uses a part of theirs, etc until all units have gone and then the turn recycles.

same mission objectives.

Stratagems

These are bought during the first turn bid and are pretty awesome. They range from rerolling a single die per turn, to giving units twin linked, tank hunters, etc. Really cool mechanic, IMO, and one that adds a lot to the game.

Wow, that is a lot of change from 5th. It seems like they are trying to mix in some of the cooler rules from apocalypse. I'm not a fan on the missions though. It seems like they are trying to force people to play at a higher point value. Again, prolly trying to drive up sales. That's a lot to digest though, what do you guys like/dislike?

5 comments:

I actually real like how these changes all feel like they are bringing the strategy aspects back to 40k, and hopefully see less matchups decided outcomes and more tactics deciding outcomes.

That being said, I am eager to see how much of this is legit and makes the final printing. I learned my lesson from the GK Codex that even true leaks can have significant changes before they see release, and I am not yet sold if these are real leaks or very well made and thought out fakes (which is possible, since rumors of these changes have been around for at least 6 months).

Either way, I am excited for the release of 6th if only to see if these very cool changes are real.